When a mum loves a dad
by Miss92
Summary: All the things a man has to worry about when his wife is pregnant. Will the baby actually look like him? James is very much doubting this and therefore doubting Lily's love.


**When a mum loves a dad**

In some ways it was a very unusual Friday night. First of all, he hadn't eaten a nice home cooked meal; he had ordered some pizza instead. Secondly, he wasn't on the couch enjoying the presence of his wife, no, he was enjoying the presence of his best friends. And to be quite honest, he hated the mess they had made already.

"Okay," Sirius Black said as he took a huge bite from a piece of pizza, "this book is bloody amazing." He held up a copy of _Maternity Tales_, a completely pink book that they normally wouldn't have even thought about touching, but tonight was special.

Remus raised his eyebrow. "Why do I find it disturbing that you like a book on the whole process of being pregnant?"

"There are probably pictures of nude women in the book," decided Peter Pettigrew, looking up from his own book on pregnancy.

"Guys," James Potter then said, "can you please be serious. I need all the information I can get." He sighed heavily. "I just can't fail this."

"How many times have I told you?" asked Remus then. "Being a father will come naturally, you'll make some mistakes, but you won't be able to avoid those mistakes by reading every book on having a baby."

"I might as well try," said James. He closed the book that he had been reading and placed it on the table. "I'm just not good at this, I can tell." He ruffled his hair.

"If you're not good at this then why are you having a baby anyway?" asked Sirius.

"It's not as though I can bloody stop it, can I?" James asked.

"There is something like birth control, you know," said Sirius as he sat up to watch his friend.

"Yes, well, Lily really wanted a baby, so… it's not as though I've ever been able to deny her anything. I just… it all happened so soon." James groaned. "This is going to be a disaster. I'm going to be a disaster!"

"James," Remus said, for what seemed like the tenth time, "you are not going to be a disaster and if you are there is always Lily."

"Thank Merlin for Lily!" said Sirius as he picked up his book again. "I wouldn't know what to do without her. Why is she away anyway, Prongs?"

"She's with Alice at the moment," said James, "Frank is away for the Order and Alice needed some company and seeing they're both pregnant… they'll be talking about babies and everything baby-related."

"I can see why you're here with us," said Sirius, "it sounds like my worst nightmare."

"I think babies are cute," piped in Peter as he lifted his book and showed a picture of a sleeping baby girl.

"Thank you, Peter," said Remus, "you're the only sane person in this room except for me. Did you hear that, James? Babies are cute and I think they also bring a lot of happiness with them."

"Yes," James said and he sighed, "I know all that, but that doesn't take away the fact that I'll be the worst father in the world. I can't even take care of the plants in our home!"

"A baby is different," said Sirius, "a baby makes noise and remembers you that you have to feed it and… have to do other things."

"Sirius, you're helping!" said Remus. "Finally!"

"I was helping all the time," said Sirius with a roll of his eyes. "By the way, Prongs, according to this book having a baby is very helpful for the father. If the firstborn child looks like his or her dad it means that the mother loves the father very much."

"What?" James asked.

"You know," said Sirius, "when your baby looks like you it means that Lily loves you very much."

"That's ridiculous," said Remus, "don't listen to him, James, that's just something people made up."

James however felt very light headed. "And what if the baby doesn't look like the father?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"I don't know," Sirius said, "I suppose Lily doesn't love you that much if the baby doesn't look like you."

James swallowed and took the book from Sirius' hands. It did indeed say that if the firstborn child looks like the father, the mother is very much in love with the father. What if their baby was born and the child didn't look like him at all? What did that say about their relationship?

"Oh, please," said Remus, "James, Lily loves you very much."

"She hates it when I don't clean up the mess I've made," James said quietly, "she hates it when I forget to flush the toilet or when I spill water or anything else liquid."

"That doesn't mean she doesn't love you, she just gets annoyed with you sometimes," said Remus.

"But what if that does mean she doesn't love me enough to have our firstborn look like me?" asked James panicked and he started to pace through the room. "What if I think she loves me, but she doesn't love me at all and only pities me?"

"She wanted to have a baby with you, James," said Remus, "that should say enough."

"Yeah," said Sirius, "and remember the one time you were being an enormous prat about her joining the Order? She still wanted to marry you after that!"

"And that one time when you ate the chocolate I gave her for her birthday," said Peter, "she didn't even hex you after that!"

"She does love you, James," said Remus, calming down his friend slightly.

James nodded and looked at his friends. "Yeah, she does, doesn't she?"

His friends nodded enthusiastically; still he couldn't help but doubt his own words.

***

"James," he heard her yell as he closed the front door, "is that you?"

"Yeah," he said as he kicked out his shoes.

"Could you come up to the nursery?" she asked.

He ran up the stairs and walked into the nursery, wrapping his arms around his wife's pregnant form.

"What do you think?" she asked as she turned around in his arms with a bright smile on her face.

"Uhm…" he said as he looked her up and down, "did you cut your hair?"

Her face fell slightly. "No!" she almost yelled. "I meant the nursery. I moved the crib a few inches so the light falls into it a bit more. I'm sure our baby will love some light in the nursery, don't you think?"

He looked at the crib and frowned slightly. "I honestly don't see a difference, darling," he said and realised he had said the wrong thing when he saw her face.

She pushed him away slightly and glared at him. "I hate you, Potter!" she yelled and stormed out of the nursery.

He doubted his firstborn would look anything like him.

***

"It's a boy," he said as he faced his friends.

"Fantastic!" declared Sirius Black as he wrapped his arms around James. "Congratulations, Prongs."

"Can we see him?" asked Peter with a smile on his face.

"Not quite yet," said James.

"Well, can you at least tell us who he looks like then?" asked Remus, also smiling brightly.

"Uhm…" James said and he looked at his feet, "I haven't really seen him yet."

"Merlin," said Sirius, "is there something wrong with him? He is healthy, isn't he?" When James didn't answer Sirius assumed the worst. "Oh, Prongs, I'm so very sorry."

"No, no," said James then and he swallowed, "I just didn't dare look at him!"

His friends all stared at him with a strange look on their face and then Remus groaned.

"James," Remus said, "please, don't say you're still concerned he doesn't look like you and that therefore Lily doesn't love you enough?"

Sirius shook his head. "You coward! Go to your wife and son and admire them!"

They almost pushed him towards the door and James anxiously walked into the room to find Lily smiling the happiest smile he had ever seen on her face.

"James," she said lovingly, "look at him, isn't he perfect?"

Their baby was wrapped in her arms and he couldn't see him yet, but when he saw him he gasped.

Lily laughed. "He's truly your son," she said and her hand found James'. "I love you, both of you."

He practically beamed at his wife. "I love you both more than you can imagine," and he kissed his wife and then his son on the forehead.

"Thank Merlin, he looks like you, Prongs!" he heard Sirius say behind him. "I really didn't want to explain to Lily why she was signing the divorce papers after just giving birth to your son."

"Divorce papers?" Lily asked, a confused and slightly hurt expression on her face.

"Don't worry, Lily," said Remus then, "James here was worried your little boy wouldn't look like him, because apparently that means you don't love him."

"What?" Lily asked as she looked at her husband. "You actually thought I don't love you, you actually needed some proof of my love for you?"

James swallowed and chose to ignore his wife's questions, instead he picked up his son from her arms and he held him in his arms. "You're going to be a terrific Quidditch player, Harry, I can tell…"

"Didn't I tell you some things just come naturally?" Remus whispered in his ear and he grinned.

"Yeah," he said, "I suppose you're right. I might not be that much of a disaster."

"When a mum loves a dad…" concluded Sirius as he looked at little Harry, "Merlin, Prongs, poor Harry looks a bit too much like you."

"That only shows how much I love his dad," said Lily and James looked down at her with a loving expression on his face.

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I actually was told by someone that my mum must love my dad very much, because I look like him and am the firstborn child. I felt really warm when I heard that. (Strange, but I felt happy when I thought: "My mummy loves my daddy very much!") Anyway, I decided to write about it, because... well, I think it's cute! Let me know what you think! This is just a oneshot (a quite silly one), but I enjoyed writing it.


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